Week 2 in spain!

Hola familia!!

So this week was super awesome. On Tuesday, we took a bus to Granada for disctrict meeting. We do this every Tuesday. After we were there, Elder Keller and I went on a companionship exchange, and I came back to Jaén with Elder Hooper, one of my zone leaders. So Tuesday night and Wednesday day it was me and him tearing it up here in Jaén. One person that doesn´t know the area, and the other a very new missionary that barely even knew how to get to his own house. Needless to say, that split with Elder Hooper was a lot of fun, and a bit crazy at times because we got lost a couple of times.

We have two families that are progressing right now. The Bolivians and another family where the father is from here in Spain, and the mother is Columbian. Both families are making progress, however it´s slow progress, but progress none the less. I guess it´s not fair for me to ask them to become converted to Christ and His restored church over night. I believe that both of these families will get baptized, most likely next month. Those are really the only progressing investigators we have right now. We found one more this week, and three more last Saturday, but they keep telling us that they can´t meet with us and so they aren´t making any progress. But we´ll get in with them I promise! Please keep the families of Ester and Luis (the Bolivians) and of Roque and Angela (the other family) in your prayers, and pray that their hearts will be opened.

So a couple funny things happened to me this week. On friday we were contacting this man and he was straight up atheist. Elder Keller was being pretty persistant and asking if we could meet with me when all of the sudden he turns to me, rattles off some question in Spanish and then waited for my response. Now keep in mind that I can´t understand anything that anyone says. So I have no idea what this man just said to me. So I pretend to ponder his question for a moment, and then respond with "yes, but..." when he cut me off, said a one last thing and then turned around and walked away. I asked Elder Keller what he had said to me and he told me that the man had said "It´s all a lie! The sciptures, the church, God lied to you, He´s not real and you believe that don´t you?" And at that point I responded with "yes". Perfect.

The other funny thing that happend to us, happened with a member. We were driving with two members to their house to eat. We were talking with the husband about football, and as we pulled onto their street the wife interrupts everybody and says "I´m going to say a prayer so that we can find a parking spot!" and then she just starts praying right there! Sure enough, we found a spot and as the husband is parking (paralell parking) the wife interrupts us again and says another prayer to help her husband be able to park! Elder Keller and I were sitting in the back trying our hardest not to laugh. The members here are nuts.

So we had a good week in Jaén. Today we´re going to go check out the bull fighting stadium that's in the middle of the city. I'll send you pictures of it next week. I´m glad to hear that everything is going good! I love you mom and everyone else! I´ll talk to you next week!

Con amor,

Elder Webb

Jaen - with Photos!

Hola familia!
 

Holy stinking moley Spain is incredible! When I entered the MTC, this point seemed so far away, like it would never come. Now, I can hardly believe that I¨m actually here! This place is amazing!

Plane ride was fine, I was able to sleep for a little while and we had no problemss in Paris. As you know, my comp is Elder Keller. He´s a super stud from Blackfoot Idaho and we have a ton in common. He´s been out for almost one year (on the 15th). We are the only Elders in this area, and for about an hour in each direction. Jaén is a way cool city built on a mountain, high up in the Spanish mountians. It´s pretty stinking cold here actually, something I was not prepared for haha. However previous missionaries have left a lot of things here, so I´m taken care of. They produce olives here in Jaén and there are litterally millions of olive trees surrounding the city, in every direction, for miles and miles. Where we live is called a piso and it´s a tiny little "flat" in a good part of town. They don´t have central air here in Spain, and it gets cold in Jaén, so our piso is freezing in the mornings, kinda funny because I thought I would be coming to nice sunny and warm Spain. But in my first area I´m freezing my tail off.
 

Bob asked if I understand anything, and the answer to that is a big ol´fat NO. I literally cannot understand a word anyone says. I´m always asking my comp for help. There is one family from Mexico that I can sort of understand, but everyone else, I have no hope. They speak so differently here. Along with the lisp (which actually sounds cool when a Spaniard uses it, but not us gringo Americans), the Spaniards cut of the ends of a lot of words, so half the time I don´t even recognize what the heck they´re saying to me! It´s going to take a while to adjust to this, but I´m having a ton of fun none the less!
 

I arrived in Jaén on Friday night and we went teaching right when we got here. We taught this family from Bolivia, and the wife had a date to be baptized, but not the husband, so I invited him to be baptized a week after his wife. He said he would if he knew in his heart that this is true. So not a super firm commitment, but we´re making progress. Bolivians are just lazy, so we´ll be patient with them. There is another family that we are teaching that is super super cool, totally interested. However the husband is from Spain, and so just really stubborn and takes a lot of work to make changes, but we´re also making progress with them.
 

Sunday was great, taking the sacrament felt good, something familiar. I intruduced myself and bore my testimony during sacrament meeting. There is a small chapel in Jaén with a branch of about 70 members, but elder Keller and I are going to raise that number so that they can become a ward! and when things like that happen, missionary work takes off. People get excited and want to help the missionaries and be involved in missionary work, so please pray for the people in Jaén!
 

This is my address:
Calle Nuestra Senora del Perpetuo Soccorro, 40

23009, Jaén (Jaén)

Spain.
 

You can send me letters straight to my piso if you want. Also, the order of the words are not arranged in any special way, so you might want to look up this address on google maps to see how they need to be arranged for letters and what not. (We Checked and the address is good!)

So that´s that! I hope this was all the information you were hoping for! If not, just let me know and I¨ll do better next time! Hey I love you all! Keep up the good work at home! Talk to you next week!

con amor,

Elder Webb

 

this is a castle that is in Jaén on top of a mountain



Another picture of Castle



Three Generations. Elder Webb (Newbi), Elder Keller (Trainer), Elder Valenzuela (Keller's Trainer)

 

Photos we found of Jaen on the internet



Map of Jaen



Castillo de Santa Catalina in Jaen



Catedral Jaen

Jaen

 

 

Assigned to work in Jaen

While we don't know any specifics yet, other then his companions name is Elder Keller, this just appeared on thespainmalagamission.blogspot.com website.
We do know that P-day is tomorrow so hopefully we will have more information then.

New Travel Plans!!

We got a call from Shane on Friday Night. Let's just say that we were really surprised. When I answered the phone I had no idea who was calling. When I figured it out I talked to him for a few minutes and then passed the phone to his Mom and just told her to say hello. She had no idea  who it was and did not want to take the call. Finally she did and was very elated that it was him. With him traveling this week and no PDay in the MTC we figured we would not here from him until he was in Spain.

The reason for the call was to let us know that his travel plans have changed. He did not know why but his travel day changed from Tuesday the 5th to Wednesday the 6th. Also his flight plans have changed. Instead of going to New York and then Madrid, he will now be going from SLC to Paris and then on straight to Malaga. We are assuming that since they are not going to the Spain MTC they did not need to go to Madrid. So he will be in the field as a missionary by the end of the week.

The mission blog, thespainmalagamission.blogspot.com, is a real good source for information on the missionaries in that mission. Look there on this weekend to see where he is assigned and who his companion is.